The present invention concerns a trigger sensor for triggering an electric furniture drive based on a movement caused by a user of the furniture part to be driven by the furniture drive. The trigger sensor has at least one actuating member movable in the mounted position by the furniture part.
Trigger sensors are shown in various different design configurations in AT 413 472 B. Thus, for example, FIG. 17 shows a trigger sensor having a potentiometer actutable by an actuating member, the actuating member being integrated in the ejection lever of the furniture drive. For that purpose, the ejection lever is of a two-part configuration, the two lever parts being prestressed relative to each other by a spring.
FIG. 18 shows another embodiment in which the trigger sensor is fixed separately from the furniture drive to the furniture carcass. Here the actuating member of the trigger sensor is in the form of a spring-loaded push rod cooperating by way of a rack with a pinion of a potentiometer. The precise structure of that trigger sensor is shown in FIG. 19.
The above-discussed trigger sensors suffer from the disadvantage that they are each sensitive only to movements of the furniture part in a single predetermined direction. That direction is the specific direction in which the furniture part is movably mounted. If the furniture part is especially in the form of a drawer, the problem arises precisely in relation to very wide drawers which are of a small internal depth, that a trigger sensor which is sensitive only to the predetermined direction of movement of the furniture part does not permit reliable triggering of the furniture drive, particularly when the situation involves the manual application of pressure to the front panel of the drawer in one of the edge regions. In that case, more specifically, only a negligible depthwise movement of the furniture part parallel to the side walls of the furniture carcass is made possible by the force applied from the exterior by the user. Instead, that primarily involves a rotary movement of the furniture part, and that movement cannot be detected by the trigger sensor. That problem can also arise in relation to other furniture parts such as, for example, furniture doors or furniture flaps.
DE 10 2006 008 505 A1 discloses a trigger sensor having the features of the classifying portion of the present invention.